well, my girlfriend's dad recently bought back a 94 mazda 626 from someone who originally bought it from him. he got the car from texas off ebay, fixed it up, and sold it to this guy. well, the guy was having some overheating problems one night, and he added some coolant. he didnt bother to look around and as a result, didnt notice that the serp. belt had come off the engine. it overheated and he couldnt get the car started again. her dad brought the car back to his place on a truck and has had it parked for a while. he turned it over a few days later and it wouldnt start. i havent looked at the car much, but i like the looks of it. it's a 5 spd with the 2.0L engine. her dad offered it to me for freeif i got a new engine for it. first though, i would like to do some of my own tests on it to see exactly what it needs. i am going to drain the oil, flush the coolant, and change the tranny fluid first to see if there is any coolant in the oil and to see if there's any shavings in the tranny or the oil pan. i have a few questions. first, if anyone has any ideas or has encountered a similar problem, it would come in handy definitely. second, is the drain plug in these cars magnetic? i would like to know this so i can determine how to check the pan for shavings.
hopefully it isnt a big deal and the most i'll need is some work done on the cylinder head, but if it comes down to it, i wouldnt mind getting a full engine rebuild simply because the rest of the car is in really good shape. if you guys would like pics, just let me know and i will go take some and put them up for you. thanks ahead of time for your help!

 

what does it do when you turn the key ??? does it make any noise ?

 

Would be wanting to check engine compression first off. Severe overheating can not only warp the cylinder head but also destroy the tension on the piston rings causing then to collapse into the piston. Some transmission drain plugs have a magnet on them but not always. 5 speed manual trans is not going to have an oil pan, just a drain plug.

 

yeah, will check compression. i know about the warped head and the messed rings, but like i said before, i have only been able to look at the car, i wasnt able to actually do anything to it. now in the past two days, we've got a ton of snow (i live in duluth, mn) and tomorrow isnt looking any better. however, i'm going over to her house and we're going to pull the car into the garage and get started testing. i'll try turning it over first though and see what i get, then i'll do compression tests and such. the thing with the warped head is that it never lost any coolant from the engine, but it's possible that it could have some in the oil, i havent checked it. in the event of rings, i'd just go full engine rebuild, because it really isnt that expensive with the guy i've been having most of my machinework done with. he takes these jobs on the side. however, is there anything else anyone would have for information? my next question for you guys is, what do you think about these cars? just from what i've read about on the internet, it sounds really decent...thanks guys

 

Im not to knolageable of solving problems on this car due to the fact that I am new to this car. I got a 1994 626. I really dig the car. Handles fairly well and good on gas. 4 cylinder doesn’t have the greatest amount of power though i don’t think it was expecting to have that because itsa 4 door family type car. Reports i have saw about the car gave it good marks. Also I really like the fact that parts are pretty easy to come by. Good luck with solving the problems. If wasn’t ignorant to the car i'd try to give you my two cents but i just wanted to share about what I have heard about the car.

Peace,
Tokish

 

okay, well i got the car in the garage today and started digging into her. first we pulled the plugs and checked compression, it's good, it has enough. however, when we turned the car over for about 20-30 seconds, there was a pool of liquid in the cylinders. i dipped a rag into it and it looked like a gas/oil mix. the car turns over fine and all, but it doesnt quite fire. we had it flooded so we gave up. i dug into it and began removing the head and realized at about 7 pm that i would have to remove the camshafts to get the head off. i hadnt hit TDC yet, so i just am going to let it sit for the night and start in in the morning. the reason i am removing the head is because i think it is warped and is letting oil into the cylinders. does this sound right or would you think it's rings?